Behavior of the Two-Phase Gas-Liquid Flow at the Inlet of a Catalytic Reactor

Abstract

The work was aimed at studying the behavior of the two-phase gas-liquid flow at the inlet pipe of a catalytic reactor. Apart from the classical approach using literature flow diagrams, methods of computational hydrodynamics were used for 3D simulation of the space propagation of phases in the pipeline. The results obtained demonstrated non-uniform distribution of the liquid phase through the outlet section of the pipeline and the time-unsteady mass consumption of the liquid phase. The maximal peak consumptions were ca. 3 times as high as the average values. With the data on the flow diagrams, the CFD simulation demonstrated that variations in the gas consumption within the range under study do not cause changes in the behavior of the two-phase flow but an increase in the gas consumption results in smoothening of the non-uniform distribution of the liquid phase at the outlet pipe. The data on the flow behavior are necessary for designing catalytic reactors to provide uniform propagation of the two-phase flow over the catalyst bed, for example, hydrotreatment reactors used in refineries.